Leprechaun wannabe steals bucket of...

Leprechaun wannabe steals bucket of gold in Midtown

Not the man the NYPD are looking for (image credit: Ignacio Leo and Daniel Schwen via Wikimedia)

Whoever says that only rainbows deliver pots of gold has obviously never lived in New York City.

A bucket of gold flakes worth $1.6 million was stolen in September from the back of a unguarded armored truck on West 46th Street. Security footage of the incident, aired yesterday by NBC 4 New York, shows the alleged thief loitering near the truck, then grabbing the bucket and making a slow moving getaway with the 86-pound pail.

According to NBC, when one guard left to make a pickup, and the other guard went to the front seat to grab his cellphone, the man capitalized on the 20-second window of distraction to nab the gold.

“I think he just saw an opportunity, took the pail and walked off.” said NYPD detective Martin Pastor to NBC.

The man in the video is shown getting into a van at 49th Street and Third Avenue, with his heavy load the normally 10-minute walk took him an hour. We wonder if his conscience was weighing him down as much as his booty.

Meanwhile, this very creative Craigslist ad for an “86 pound Bucket of Gold Flakes (not stolen)” has just sprung up. [NBC]